SGV: Opal Chinese Cuisine at Sheraton San Gabriel

 

For Thanksgiving this year, we checked out Opal Chinese Cuisine.

We had two big tables for the 14 of us and so we had multiples of all the dishes. We started out with the Peking tavern with the cute personal sized wraps. The duck with the skin was better than just the skin which is what most people go for. The skin was not crispy enough which I think is because all the fat had been scraped away

You want that silky mouth feel from good duck skin. Still, enough hoisin sauce…

 

 

Next we had the Chinese BBQ pork (cha siu). I’m not more of a Chinese BBQ pork fan. I tend to find this dish too sweet but these slices weren’t sweet. However, I also thought the meat was a tiny bit dry. This is listed on the menu as wildflower honey glazed pork.

 

 

The honey walnut shrimp was great because the shrimp were quite large and fresh. My friend had his wedding banquet at Opal a few months ago and he mentioned the shrimp being great.

 

One of the best dishes was the salt and pepper squid I was surprised how flavorful this was though there was a lot going on with this dish spice wise. There was a bit of a heavy hand with the chiles but that’s okay!

 

 

The beef with snap peas was one of my favorite dishes. I felt though the beef was diced too finely. My other favorite dish was the fried tofu and bok choy (not shown). This turned out to be a winner with plenty of gravy that would have gone well with rice.

 

I was a little disappointed by the fish. I thought it was a little dry. The sauce didn’t help it the sea bass.

 

 

I always love the dry stir-fried style of Chinese green beans. Solid dish.

 

 

Our last savory dish was the lobster noodles. For the most part my family avoids rice at big multi-course meals (better to save room for protein!) and for this night, I skipped the rice. I did try the noodles and I found them a bit dry. The lobster was good though.

With a lot of dishes being too dry, I wonder if they were held before coming to the table. Sure, most dishes had sauce squggles but the proteins being dry meant they were overcooked.

Bonus though- because Opal is part of the Sheraton, we had access to the hotel bar. I had Boodles gin and tonics with my meal. Boodles is one of my fave gins. #notspon

 

 

For dessert we had sweet rice dumplings (not shown) and what I call Chinese jello. I went with the lighter gelatin though most people like the Chinese “mochi.”

Opal is a beautiful restaurant with good service. It’s good to see a modern Cantonese restaurant in San Gabriel Valley. We’ve seen contemporary Cantonese restaurants in Las Vegas, San Francisco and Asia of course but it seems there hasn’t been much of this trend in the SGV. Maybe Opal will lead the way.

Opal Chinese Cuisine at the Sheraton San Gabriel

303 E Valley Blvd., San Gabriel, CA 91776  —  (626) 607-2018

 

 

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